


Gossip

by stellations



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 21:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5841652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellations/pseuds/stellations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deanna has a question for Beverly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gossip

Ten Forward was decidedly lacking in people today. Deanna had a few questions to ask Beverly, as a friend of course, and had requested that they take afternoon tea together. Beverly had agreed, suspiciously. So, here they were, sitting down at a table near the window where they would have more privacy and Deanna could keep an eye on Ben. He did like to come about just at the best times to overhear juicy gossip. If Deanna had her way, there would be plenty of juicy tidbits today that she didn't want anyone to overhear.

"So, Beverly," she began calmly, stirring her tea as though she had nothing more on her mind than her drink, "my sources tell me something interesting."

"Something interesting?" Beverly echoed innocently, eyebrows raised. Deanna wouldn't believe that look for an instant, even if she couldn't sense the emotions behind it. "Am I being interrogated, dear spymaster?"

Deanna shot her a quick look, but it didn't last. Nor was it as pointed as it perhaps should have been. "I hear you were seen leaving the captain's quarters this morning."

"Oh? And this is unusual?"

Still trying to play coy. Well, two could play that game. "You weren't carrying a medical kit nor were you in uniform." One might say that Beverly had spent the night, but Deanna had more tact than that. And she knew both of them too well to suggest it.

"Oh no, you've caught me," Beverly said dramatically in what Deanna could tell was fake theatrics to cover up something else. "I was asked to breakfast by the captain and _how_ could I refuse my best friend's request?"

"Did he ask you to dance? I would have refused that," Deanna quipped, remembering the impostor and playing teasingly on that. After everything had been resolved, Beverly had admitted to Deanna that a dance had been part of it. 

Beverly's lips twisted as she tried to glare and failed miserably. "No, he didn't. You can tell the gossip squadron that it was breakfast between best friends. That's all."

Deanna could tell, and always had been able to, that there was something else between the doctor and the captain. Beyond their obvious connection through Beverly's late husband, Deanna could sense something more. It wasn't quite like what lay between her and Will, but perhaps it was similar. Parts of it at times reminded her of her own experiences. However, with Beverly and the captain... Deanna could never quite tell which of them was afraid. Perhaps both.

"I certainly will," she said, her mind taking in the sense of hiding she was getting from Beverly. 

"You know, if you keep asking me to tea or dinner, the gossip squadron will be talking about _us_ next," Beverly continued in what was obviously a deflection tactic. 

Deanna decided to go along with it to keep things light between them. She had only wanted to bring Beverly something to laugh at. After everything that had happened recently, they all needed a good laugh. And a friend. It was purely out of the goodness of Deanna's heart that she was here.

Well that and curiosity. Paired with concern.

"Why is that?"

"Don't even try to deny it, Deanna Troi," Beverly warned, brandishing her spoon at her friend. "You spend as much time around me as anyone else and it's more than I spend around Jean-Luc."

First name. Deanna took note.

Her smile turned amused. "And then we will be the ones hearing all the gossip about our friendship."

"What do you think will come first, the questions about jealousy or professional attachment?"

"Jealousy," Deanna responded immediately. "It's always jealousy. Unless, of course, we were to stage a fight outside sickbay wherein we both yell that we are relieving the other of duty."

Beverly laughed, a bright smile crossing her face. For the first time in a while, she felt happy, as though a weight had been lifted. Deanna was glad. Beverly deserved this.

The redhead leaned close, almost conspiratorially, and whispered, "Do you think that will get us shore leave?"

It was Deanna's turn to laugh this time, though hers was much softer. "If it does, the gossip will only get worse."

"That's true," Beverly mused thoughtfully. 

Deanna shifted just slightly, her hand stirring her tea with all the poise of her noble upbringing. "We had better make reservations on Risa. Just in case."

Beverly howled with laughter and the two of them spent the next twenty minutes thinking of ways to make their collective reputation fall the fastest. Deanna thought it was good for them. They hadn't had the chance to just be friends in a long time.


End file.
